I love that ‘moon’ is written under ‘place.’

  • Microw@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    Cape Kennedy-Moon-Honolulu.

    “You know you could have take a more direct route to Honolulu, right?”

      • CosmicTurtle@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Back then, everything was done through a travel agent and they often got kickbacks if you took certain routes. No doubt some agents got a bonus for routing them so circuitously.

      • Igloojoe@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Right before gmaps, you had mapquest. You had to print out your route on paper. Read while driving, and if there was any deviance in the route like construstion, fuck you.

        • GreyBeard@lemmy.one
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          8 months ago

          Highway signage was critical. If you were traveling, you could tell which states sucked by them not having any signs pointing you back to the highway.

          • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            you could tell which states sucked by them not having any signs pointing you back to the highway.

            “Oh no you don’t! We’re not showing you how to get out of here! You’re part of OUR tax base now!”

  • NegativeNull@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Apollo 13 Jack Swigert requested a Tax Filing extension while headed to the moon:

    “How do I apply for an extension?” he asked from space to those in Mission Control, who began to laugh. “Things kind of happened real fast down there and I need an extension. I’m really serious.”

    Flight director Glynn Lunney later reassured the astronaut: American citizens who were out of the country received a 60-day filing extension. “I assume this applies,” he told the astronaut, who was already far from the planet at that time.

    [source]

    • dellish@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I love how this was added to the Apollo 13 movie. As they’re floating about feeling cold and miserable Swigert gets told he has been granted an extension as he is “definitely out of the country”.

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      After Apollo 13’s safe return, Grumman Aerospace sent North American Aviation an invoice for “Towing fees” as the lunar module was the active ship during much of the outbound and all of the inbound leg of the mission.

  • spongebue@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I love the “to be determined” if there is anything on board that can cause a health hazard (they did quarantine astronauts when they first came back from the moon)

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 months ago

      The quarantine turned out to be needless, but I understand why they did it. You have to prove landing on the moon is not a biological threat and that’s pretty much the only way to do it.

  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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    8 months ago

    A friend-of-a-friend of mine took part in an international swimming event which involved swimming from one country to another, with a boat keeping pace in case anyone got in trouble.

    He was swimming back to his home country, so he never bothered to get his passport stamped or anything, he just went home. The next time he interacted with passport control they got mad at him because his passport still showed him in the origin country of the swimming. He basically took the attitude “bro it’s not a big deal, relax, I’m here now, just stamp me” and they gave him a whole bunch of grief and then just adjusted his paperwork and sent him on his way, because what else can you do.

    Then for the next year’s event he did it AGAIN, and the second time the passport people discovered the issue they were even more angry, and he still just kind of took the attitude “bro you don’t run me, I’m not malicious and IDGAF about your system, just stamp me and let me go to Italy or whatever.”

    Things you can do when you’re the correct ethnicity for $100

  • Got_Bent@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Admit it. The reason for the “to be determined” was the lunar flying squid they found in his luggage.

  • havokdj@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    As unnecessary as this seems, you never know:

    They could be illegal aliens…

  • samus12345@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    We’re gonna have to make the Moon’s name more specific if we ever survive long enough to colonize other planets. It’s like if Earth’s name were Planet.

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        That also just means “moon,” so no help there. Earth might as well be named “Planeta.”

        • crackajack@reddthat.com
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          8 months ago

          Humans already named objects within the solar system after Latin words and names. Earth would be called Terra, meaning “earth” or “land”. Many sci-fi stories did this already lol. Luna is already reserved to Earth’s Moon. The other “moons” in the solar system already have their names from Latin like Europa or Ganymede.

          • threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works
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            8 months ago

            It’s kind of funny how “Terra” and “Earth” are all synonymous with “Dirt”. I wonder if every intelligent life form does this. If we eventually meet up with aliens, are we all going to be like: ‘Yes, this is “Dirt”, our beloved home planet.’

          • neutron@thelemmy.club
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            8 months ago

            Problem is that Luna means moon (a planet’s satellite) in romance languages like Spanish. If we’re giving proper toponyms for the earth’s satellite itself and its subdivisions, we should try and avoid generic names like Luna .

          • Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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            8 months ago

            I’m pretty sure Luna, Terra and Sol are all poetic names that used in works of fiction but aren’t used by actual organizations.

            Other moon names like you listed are the scientific names, recognized and used by institutions like NASA.

          • samus12345@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Yes, but none of the others are named after exactly what they are. The Earth has a lot of earth on it, yes, but it’s a planet, not a clump of earth. Using a non-English word for “moon” and assuming it’s sufficient would be pretty lame and very English-centric.

            • crackajack@reddthat.com
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              8 months ago

              We already call satellites orbiting a planet “moon”, as in Europa is a moon of Jupiter. Or Phobos is a moon of Mars. But right now when we say moon, it usually means our moon.

              You’re right that in the future we would have to use a generic term for all extraterrestrial objects once we start colonising space. Which is why I think in the future, “moon” will become the catch-all term for the non-Earth moon, while we will call our own as Luna instead.

              • samus12345@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                Then what will Spanish speakers call it?

                My guess is we’ll go the laziest route possible and “Earth’s Moon” will be its formal English name.

        • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          8 months ago

          Luna is Latin for the moon

          Selene is Greek for the goddess and personification of the moon

          “The Moon” is it’s actual name these days but either of those options is a fair pick given their oldness

          • abbotsbury@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I mean, yeah, many celestial bodies take their names from Latin. Like how the proper name of the sun is Sol, which matches solar, the lunar object would be called Luna. Selene feels like a retronym to match other Greek deities, and would be like renaming Earth to Gaia

            either of those options is a fair pick given their oldness

            Luna would definitely rank over Selene in the Western astronomical tradition. As you say, its name is just The Moon, which is what Luna means in many current day Latin derived languages

  • Fontasia@feddit.nl
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    8 months ago

    There’s also scans of their “travel re-imbursements” which has “Moon” as the destination

    • modifier@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      Not sure if this is what inspired OP, but I just learned the fact about astronauts going through customs yesterday, in a video posted by Channel 5 on YouTube. The context was that Andrew Callahan, who is a US citizen, tried crossing the Rio Grande with Coyotes for journalistic reasons, and he learned the hard way that there are NO exceptions to the rule requiring entering through customs. Not for journalists, and not for astronauts.

  • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    They (well, Buzz Aldrin, at least) also filled out a travel expense voucher to get reimbursed for driving his personal car, including from his home to the air force base from which he flew to Florida, as well as around Cape Kennedy, during his “official travel.”

    His official itinerary is more detailed than the one provided on the customs form (all dates are, of course, in July of 1969):

    7-7 | LV: Residence | 0445 | POV (note: POV means “Privately Owned Vehicle.” Aldrin reported 8 miles for this leg of the journey and was reimbursed 56¢.)

    7-7 | AR: EAFB | 0500 (note: EAFB is “Ellington Air Force Base” in Houston)

    7-7 | LV: EAFB | 0530 | Gov. Air

    7-7 | AR: Cape Kennedy, Fla. | 0800

    7-16 | LV: Cape Kennedy, Fla. | 0832 | Gov. Spacecraft (note: Saturn V serial number SA-506, of course)

    7-19 | AR: Moon | 1325

    7-21 | LV: Moon | 2400 | Gov. Spacecraft (note: transfer from NASA LM-5 Eagle to NASA CSM-107 Columbia not listed)

    7-24 | AR: Pacific Ocean | 0600 (note: at 13°19′N 169°9′W in the North Pacific, about 920 miles or 1480 km from Honolulu)

    7-24 | LV: Pacific Ocean | 0800 | USN Hornett (note: Aldrin misspelled the name of the US navy aircraft carrier Hornet here.)

    7-26 | AR: Hawaii | 0900 (note: Pearl Harbor, to be specific)

    7-26 | LV: Hawaii | 1200 | USAF Plane (note: the particular plane was a C-141B Starlifter designated 66-7958 USAF, which I cannot find a name for.)

    7-27 | AR: EAFB | 0100

    7-27 | LV: EAFB | 0215 | Gov. Veh. (note: the Gov. Veh. in question was the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF), a converted Airstream trailer. They would stay in the MQF for three weeks. Actually, they boarded the MQF on the Hornet ; it was then loaded into 66-7958 in Hawaii and unloaded in Houston.)

    7-27 | AR: LRL | 0300 (note: LRL is the Lunar Receiving Laboratory, building 37 at Johnson Space Center in Houston.)

    A notation beneath this itinerary reads “Government meals and quarters furnished for all the above dates.

    Aldrin also reported 100 miles of “official vicinity travel” at Cape Kennedy for the nine days between his arrival and departure, for which he was reimbursed $10. Another note reads “POV authorized for official vicinity travel at Cape Kennedy, Fla. in leiu (sic) of rental car.” I can’t find any information about what POV this is; he left his personal vehicle in Houston when he flew on a government plane to Florida, so perhaps he owned two cars?

    There are three handwritten notes beneath that which I cannot read but claim $8.00 and $19.25, as well as $4.50 of charges that he subtracts from the total; these three are listed in the “subsistence” column. The grand total claimed on this voucher are $33.31 ($279.17 in 2024 dollars), and it was approved by someone named “C.W. Bird.”

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 months ago

      My mother-in-law is ex-army and she takes advantage of every single deal and loophole she can find. I don’t blame her and I don’t blame Buzz. I especially don’t blame Buzz. He put his life on the line to go to the fucking moon. Reimburse him for whatever the hell he wants.

      • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Not to mention, the guy spent three weeks cooped up in an Airstream trailer with nothing to do but eat steaks and drink whiskey. I’d guess that it’s not impossible he did this itinerary to stave off boredom one day.

          • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I mean, a couple days, sure. Even a week. But after three weeks with only the same four other people (the two other astronauts + two NASA employees) and never being allowed to leave, when you went to the MOON and were allowed to go stretch your legs a few days in? It would get pretty old.

      • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Oh, absolutely. And tbh, $280 is nothing to sneeze at. I would definitely report that kind of money, even if I had just been to the moon. Maybe especially if I had.